X Factor winner Alexandra Burke gives a detailed interbiew to womens magazine, Marie Claire. Alexandra talks about how winning the X Factor has effected her family, her relationship with former mentor Cheryl Cole and her up and coming album. Check some of what she had to say below.
X Factor winner Alexandra Burke has confessed that her new-found fame has had a devastating effect on her family.
The 21-year-old singer admitted that her success on the show has led to clashes with her mother and indirectly to her brother Aaron’s attempted suicide.
Burke said her mother Melissa, who sang with 80s group Soul II Soul, finds it hard to cope with her daughter’s fame since she won the show.
In a revealing interview accompanied by a stunning photoshoot for Marie Claire Alexandra said: ‘She had Soul II Soul but it didn’t last as long as she wanted it to last.
‘Then I get this big new show, I win it, and it’s weird for her to see this.
‘Although she’s proud, it’s like she wants to rewind time to when she was younger, when she didn’t have kids.
‘I’ve never talked about this by the way. We’re not a perfect family. Things p*** me off.’
That includes being kicked out of the house at the age of 16 – she admits for the next two-and-a-half years she barely talked to her family.
The singer and her mother made up and were further reconciled during the X Factor auditions, which Alex needed persuading to attend.
She ended up winning the whole thing, starring in a duet with Beyonce in the grand final, but still the family came under strain as jealous neighbours subjected them to a campaign of harrassment in Islington, north London.
Thugs threw stones at her car and smashed a window in their block of flats and even used the name of her No.1 hit – which sold a record 105,000 copies in one day – as they abused her.
She said: ‘Every time I come out it’s abusive names. They start singing Hallelujah and shouting “Alexandra the Bitch’. It upsets me.’
The attacks became so bad that brother Aaron, now 16, attempted to take his own life in July this year, and Alex said she still fears for his well being.
She added: ‘He wanted to die. He’s going off the rails. He needs a father figure.’
Alex has now moved to Barnet and is a regular visitor to mentor Cheryl Cole’s home in Surrey.
She said: ‘I am very open with her and she is with me. I tell her lots of things I wouldn’t even tell my sister.’
Despite all the problems, however, Burke is determined to carry on with her pop career and has a new single, Bad Boys, coming out in stores on October 12 (October 11 online). (SOURCE)
I'm really surprised at how poorly she's been treated by some of the British public. Where always the ones to complain that we don't have any singers that can compete with the U.S powerhouse singers. We finally find one on Alexandra and the girl has not received the same adulation as previous winner of the X Factor Leona Lewis. There both amazing singers, but I cant help but feel that for some reason, Alexandra has not been given the same support by the public. I hope she does well and shows the HATERS what she's really working with. Do your thing girl!
Monday, October 5, 2009 at 2:45PM
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